Six Suitcases - Can We Do It?

We haven't posted in over a month, and this time I feel like we have a pretty good excuse! Over the past month, we have done the following:

• Packed up all our stuff in Dallas (with AMAZING help from friends!) and moved out of our mobile home.
• Spent a wonderful Christmas time with family in MN.
• Spent (and are still spending!) very enjoyable time with family in NC.
• And of course, along the way, unpacked, repacked, unpacked, repacked

The next couple days should be interesting. We get to consolidate our most valuable possessions (specifically, those possessions that we think we will find most valuable in the Central African Republic) into six suitcases, finish up any paperwork and anything we want to do in the United States for the next few years, and get on a plane early Monday morning with luggage, tickets, passports and visas all in order.

You know what I'm discovering? Six suitcases is not a lot of suitcases. Not for four people and three years. But we will do it--we will fit whatever fits in six suitcases and leave the rest behind. It's both simple and complicated at the same time.

God has been very gracious to us during this stressful time. I feel like normally under these circumstances, we would be feeling very overwhelmed. But instead, although we do have a tremendous amount of things to do, we are finding ourselves able to do it without going crazy. AND, we have had so many friends and family members rally around us and help with planning, packing and watching the boys. Without everyone else, we wouldn't have been able to do it.

I need to get back to packing, but it's been nice to sit down and take a small break. I will leave you with a couple photo memories from the past month:

David, Kelsea, John and Timo hanging out and reading in MN:

John and Granddaddy eating the special "Three Kings' Day" cake on January 6 (the same type of cake we ate in Oaxaca on our honeymoon three years ago!)

Sam eating his rice cereal (he just started eating food a few days ago, and he was an avid food-eating pro from bite one!)